Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Drama In The Sky



Mid Morning Walk

I had the privilege of meeting fellow blogger and photography enthusiast Linda from 'Taking time and a walk', and her husband Dan this morning for an enjoyable  mid morning walk. It turned out to be a beautiful morning.

Although I have been down to Waterfront Park on a few occasions, each of those times had been for events. Needless to say I was so focused on the events I missed some important sights, like the Armed Forces Memorial. It was great to have this wonderful couple giving me a bit of a tour, not just pointing out great photo ops but also giving me a bit of history, and taking time to get to know each other.

I had actually walked out onto this square to take photos during Op Sails and had not even realized that the paper like sculptures were replicas of letters sent home by service members, some of them dating back to the Revolutionary War. I have been to many armed service memorials but non as touching as this one.

I was enjoying myself so much just getting to know Linda and Dan, I am sure I would have missed this shot if Dan hadn't pointed out the crabs. 

While ordinarily I like to get close up shots of sculptures and statues, for me the beautiful sky reflection in the buildings behind the reunion statue added to the joy of the moment.

Nearing the end of our walk we headed to a nearby cafe. On the way I just couldn't resist a bit of street photography, especially since this family out enjoying the morning were just right there. 

Walking to the cafe we enjoyed the play of light on the various buildings. The clouds were definitely getting thicker and it was beginning to look as if we might get a bit of rain. Sure enough by the time we were ready to leave the cafe a gentle rain was falling. Our walk had come to an end but I believe our friendship has just begun. Thanks Linda and Dan for a great mid morning walk.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It has been a few weeks since I have participated in this fun blog hop so I am rather excited to be contributing today. I hope you enjoy my interpretations. This weeks prompts were: Paint, Green, Eyelashes, Shapes and Clouds.

Paint:
With a few days leave my son-in-law decided to pull out his models and do a bit of painting.

Green:
I did get a few other shots for green, but for weeks I have been wanting to post this shot of a green flag. So I hope no one minds I pulled from my archives for this prompt.

Eyelashes:
Wanting to capture a unique red white and blue shot a shot for this prompt I convinced my daughter to put on make up and let me photograph her eyes.

Shapes:
This one took a bit more thinking, as I wanted to capture more than just one or two shapes. Here I found circles, rectangles and even a triangle. 

Clouds:
Who can resist a few puffy white clouds, I sure can't.
Please be sure to check out the other submissions at:



Monday, July 23, 2012

Macro Monday: All Tied Up

While aboard a Coast Guard ship I was drawn to these ropes. Could it be that they held a subconscious meaning for me? Some days it sure feels as if I am all tied up. The more conscious attraction though was the lighting and texture that gave the rope such depth.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Neglected Camera

That's right, this week my poor camera feels very neglected. Between the heat, rain and preserving peaches my camera spent most of the week sitting on my desk. I was lucky enough to make a few minutes to get away from the peaches late one afternoon once it had cooled down slightly get some fresh air and take a few photos of my grandchildren at a nearby park.
Sunday Best Submission
There are only two of the 14 plus bags of peaches left to preserve and the weatherman says it should cool down by mid week so hopefully my camera wont feel so neglected this next week.

Linking up with:

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Peace Before The Storm

Today I thought it might be fun to join Emily and others at Scattered Horizons Photoblog for altered Tone Tuesday. Each Tuesday photographers link up with some of their post edits. Here is one of my favorite seascape edits from a photo I took in late June.

Peace Before The Storm
Original

Adjustments to achieve lighting that is closer to what I was viewing.

Black and white conversion Tuesday Tones Submission





Scattered Horizons

Monday, July 9, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: Independence Day

I hope you enjoy this Independence Day themed series.
Patriotic:
In celebration of Independence Day I created this composite by combining two of my photographs taken last year with photos contributed by three other photographers.

View from above:
Taken from the upper level of the parking garage where I parked to go view this years July 4th fireworks in down town Norfolk.

Mosaic:
I took this last year of my Granddaughter and thought to the photo for patriotic but decided it would be a fun one to try out one of the online mosaic applications. 

Something Tiny:
Just before the fireworks started I noticed the moon rising between the buildings. It looked so tiny, I had hoped to get another shot maybe with the fireworks but once they started the moon was no longer visible. This is not the best shot and not the best for something tiny but I thought the moon was beautiful so wanted to share the photo anyway.

Vibrant:
The evening was vibrant in so many ways, first with the beautiful sunset and then the sky lit up with vibrant colors from the fireworks. 




Linking up with:


Over at Sarah Halstead's 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Macro Monday: Trapped

A few weeks ago while I was capturing shots of the ocean I noticed these sea shells trapped between these seaweed covered posts.
Wanting to capture the shells close but worried about getting my camera all wet I got in as close as was safe. 
original macro
One day I will get that awesome zoom lens so that I can capture shots like this from a distance, instead of cropping the image to the desired shot.
cropped image

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: Family & Friends

This weeks prompts for the hunt lended themselves very well to the a theme of family and friends. Most of these photos were taken this week.

The beach is a great place for families to cool down on a hot evening.

Sweet 
This is from my archives. I really miss this sweet little boy.

Hanging Around 
Taken last Saturday night while the family was hanging around playing card games.

Funny Face 
Last Sunday my niece became rather animated when we came across this giant crab head.

Space 
My dog is such a gentleman he gives the cat plenty of space at least for a little while.

To see what others found or join the hunt visit Ashely Sisk at